


Fare Thee Well

by BlueEyesAndHair



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018), She-Ra: Princess Of Power (1985)
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Pining, beach house?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:00:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24013240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueEyesAndHair/pseuds/BlueEyesAndHair
Summary: Just some fluff that I thought I'd get over quickly which seems to be turning into something slightly largerLooking at some childhood friendship being rekindled. Slight mutual pining which will probably be mostly seen from Catra's point of view cause that's how the story seems to be working in my head.It's looking like there's going to be some beach house coming up (well actually lake house but that's because it made more sense)I'm definitely going for a happy ending because I'm a sucker for those.And if anybody is wondering I'm trying to go for like an east coast semi-small city vibe in the story. Sorry if I'm missing the mark on that one I am very much no American. I'm just such a drooling sucker for that sweltering hot night vibe.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Mara/Razz (She-Ra)
Kudos: 7





	Fare Thee Well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this story will hopefully update soon. I had a sudden spurt of creativity and got what should be most of the next chapter and the bare bones of the one after that mapped out.
> 
> I'm usually pretty bad at getting stories updated but I'm making an effort at actually seeing this one through to the end. 
> 
> Happy reading guys
> 
> (on a side note if anyone is open for Beta-work do not hesitate to shoot me a message on Tumblr, user: Blueeyesandhair. Cause I have discovered that I am pretty horrid at proofreading my own stuff so I wouldn't mind the hand. Peace out!)

(Now)

Catra´s laying on her bed trying to focus on her book despite a whirlpool of thoughts rushing through her mind. The clammy summer heat is making her t-shirt stick to her back, and after rereading the same sentence 5 times and still not knowing what it says, she puts the book aside and lays her head down on the madras with a frustrated sigh. She glances down at the small fan at the foot of her bed, which is more just pushing hot air around than it is actually cooling the room. She’s had that fan for an eternity. At least since the first grade. She’s pretty sure it didn’t cool anything back then either.

It’s been unbearingly hot these last few weeks. Like swelteringly hot. She’s used to California summers being ridiculous but ever since they hit July this year it’s been like somebody cranked the dial up to eleven, with it being 105 for the last few days. And as usual, the nights weren’t any better as it got even more humid but not considerably colder. This had resulted in two very annoying things. The first being that She had been essentially unable to get a proper night’s sleep. And the second being that her dad had decided to start clearing out their garage. Apparently thinking that the hottest month of the year, so far, would be the perfect time to start doing this.

Cleaning out the garage honestly hadn’t been so bad at first. Yes, it had been hot as all fuck and she’d been sore every evening from moving all the old junk into her dad’s truck. But she and her dad had gotten to spend a lot of time together. Something she felt like they hadn’t done in ages. And it had really been fun. They’d told jokes, drunk lemonade on the porch, and even reminisced about some of the stuff they’d pulled out of old boxes. That had been until they’d gotten to that box. And Catra had, against her better judgment, decided to keep it.

It was still sitting on the floor. It’s lit thrown down beside it, and most of the box’s content carelessly spread around it. And laying on top of a bunch of papers in the box, was the source of the never-ending swirl of thoughts inside of her head. A small purple notebook decorated with glitter and stickers, with the words “friendship Journal” written on the front in hideous pink pen. The last remnant of some idiotic art project she’d done in in the first grade. A remnant that carried a lot of bitter memories. And a lot of good ones…

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(then)

Catra’s sitting in front of the principal’s office with her hands clutched in her lap. One of them stinging from a scrape she’d gotten from the asphalt. She’d been in that exact chair quite a few times over the last months, but she still didn’t like having to sit there and wait for principal Hordach to call her in. To stand there and being told off because she’d done something wrong. And the worst part was that she hadn’t even done it on purpose this time. Things had just escalated very quickly.

She glanced over at the blonde girl sitting across from her. The girl had been sniffling every few seconds ever since they got there and was looking like she could start crying any second. Catra almost felt bad for her.

They’d hadn’t even been in the same class for all that long. Catra hadn’t really talked to her all that much and didn’t even really know her name. Oodora or something like that. Until today they hadn’t even had a reason for talking to one another. That was until their teacher Mrs. Weaver had made them desk buddies this morning because the girl's old buddy had apparently asked to be moved. Just like the one before that. As Catra had learned that morning, it was apparently because the girl talked a lot. Like, a lot a lot.

At first, she’d tried to listen but after a while, she just started tuning her out while staring out the window. Ignoring the girl had been fairly easy. Until recess, where the girl started following after Catra like some lost duckling. After that things had gotten heated and before she knew it they had both been on the ground.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Adora’s day hadn’t exactly started off perfectly. Her new desk buddy had apparently asked the teacher to be moved because she couldn’t focus while sitting next to Adora. And Mrs. Weaver had done so as she didn’t have any problems believing the girl. It was after all the third time one of Adora’s desk buddies had complained of just that.

Adora didn’t mean to be disturbing. She really didn’t. She just didn’t understand how all the other kids in her class sat still and listened to Mrs. Weaver during the whole lesson. It was like her body just wasn’t able to sit still or keep quiet no matter how hard she tried. So she’d figured it would be better to whisper to her desk buddy rather than interrupt the lesson. Her desk buddy very clearly hadn’t appreciated the idea.

The first time it happened Mrs. Weaver just moved some students around without any fuzz. But after it happened the second time she’d called Adora's mom and sat them both down to talk about it. “I just need Adora to concentrate more during the lesson” she’d said in what Adora thought was a very strict tone and which had made her cry while she kept saying that she was sorry. Her mom had to hold her for the rest of the meeting while talking to Mrs. Weaver.

The car ride home hadn’t been much fun either.

“I know it can be hard to start school sweetie” her mom had said “but it really is important that you don’t disturb the other kids during class”

“I know momma,” Adora said looking out the window

“So can you promise me you’ll try harder from now on?”

“I promise”

When yet another desk buddy had asked to be moved Adora had been very scared that her mom would have to come to the school again. And then she’d be mad because Adora had broken her promise. Instead, Mrs. Weaver had just looked at her and told her that she’d be sitting next to one of the new girls from now on.

Adora already knew a lot about her new buddy as some of the older kids she sometimes tried to play with had talked about her. Her name was Catra and she’d apparently spend most of her recesses by herself. Even though she sometimes played ball with Mermista and Solomon. She’d been in the class that had to be split up after Mr. Thompson had gotten sick and had to spend some time getting better.

And for once it actually seems to go well with her desk buddy. Catra doesn’t seem annoyed with her and even nods a few times after Adora whispered something to her. It goes so well that Adora decides she’s going to spend recess with Catra, her mom had told her to try and make some friends. So after the bell had rung Adora walked out the classroom and started following Catra. Which was around where it started to go wrong.

“Why are you following me?” Catra had said after a little while

“I thought we could play together!” Adora had answered “like when you play ball with Mista and Solomon”

“like I’d wanna play with you. You are not even tall enough to get the ball into the net!”

“I can so!” Adora had yelled stamping her foot “I’m not that short!”

“No, you’re tiny!” Catra had said while holding her hand over Adora's head showing that she was almost a head shorter than herself

“No, I’m NOT!” Adora had suddenly felt very mad and pushed Catra trying to get her hand away from her head. Except Catra hadn’t been moved away from the push and instead pushed Adora back causing her to stumble and almost fall. After that, it wasn’t long before they were both on the ground scratching at each other.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sitting on that chair looking at the nearly sobbing girl across from her. Catra decided that she didn’t almost feel bad for her. She really felt bad for her. And she felt bad for pushing her around

“Hey,” Catra said quietly so they wouldn’t get in trouble for disturbing the people working in the office

“I’m sorry pushed you okay? And that I called you short”

Adora looked up from the floor and met Catra’s eyes, still trying to keep the tears from flowing from her own

“It’s alright. I pushed first. Is your hand okay? I saw your scratch”

“It’s not bad” She answered holding out her palm for Adora to see “it only stings a little now”

“that’s good. I didn’t mean to hurt you”

Adora glances worriedly at the door to the principal’s office

“never been here before?” Catra asked flashing a little smile

“no” Adora shook her head “I’ve only talked with Mrs. Weaver once. That wasn’t very fun”

“well, the principal isn’t very scary at all. He just wants to talk with us”

“do you think he’ll call my mom?”

“maybe. He sometimes calls my dad when I get sent down here. But sometimes he just wants to talk with me”

“I hope he doesn’t call momma. I promised her I’d try not to get in trouble again”

“well if he does. We’ll just say that I started it. They’ll believe that”

“really?” Adora said looking Catra in the eyes only now noticing they were two different colors. Adora thought they were cool.

“really” Catra said flashing her another small smile

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Now)

Catra slowly reached for the small notebook in the box. Hesitating for a second before deciding that this was the only way she was going to get it out of her head and grabbed the notebook.

The cover was just as she remembered it, covered in that cheap glitter glue and over a dozen different unicorn stickers. She slowly opened the book to the first page to see her own familiar handwriting. Or at least how it had looked back when she was five.

“Catra and Adora” was written in large letters on the top of the page with the words “best frends forever” written beneath it in a different hand.

She sighed as she thumbed through the book looking at random entries which either detailed something they’d done on some random day or any other thing they might have decided to write. She finally stopped on a page and started reading through the badly spaced text that covered the page

“toosday

Me and Catra played together in reces today. See Hawk and Misda played ball but Catra did not want to play with dem. Instead we played princeses and found a unicorn. Then after we played with the unicorn we sat under the big tree and held hands and talked abo…”

Catra cringed at the thought of their first-grade teacher reading this before quickly flipping through the notebook again when she suddenly stopped on a page almost at the beginning of it. Something on the page had caught her eye.

Name: Adora  
Eye color: Blue  
Best frend: Catra  
Favorit thing: Unicorns!  
Favorit color: Red  
Favorit food: Moms mac and cheese  
Moms name: momma  
Telefone number so Catra can call me:…

Catra threw the book back down on the floor and buried her head in her madras again. She didn’t need to be reminded of that number. She’d thought plenty about it over the years, and if she wanted to she could recite it by heart at this point. She decided that reading that stupid book had been the wrong choice as her thoughts were now even more chaotic and restless and she was pretty sure she felt a migraine coming on.

Somewhere from under her blanket, she heard the muffled sound of her phone dinging. Then not long after it dinged again.

Catra groaned as her mobile dinged for the third time in five minutes. Meaning that it was probably Scorpia blowing up her phone asking when she’d be at work.

“still have 40 minutes Scorp” she muttered to herself as she pulled out her phone only to get her suspicions confirmed as she read through her messages.

Scorpia: Hey Friend! Just wanted to ask when you’re coming in today  
Scorpia: Because you know I’ll be here whenever  
Scorpia: You are coming in today right???????

Catra sighed as she slid out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans before heading for the garage and getting in her dad's truck.

Catra: OMW Idiot

She threw her phone onto the passenger seat and buckled up before pressing the remote and turning the key in the ignition.

As she turned out onto the road she fiddled with the radio hoping to catch something good despite the hour. After tuning through the different stations and getting nothing but static on most of them she finally decided on something that sounded vaguely like smooth jazz. Considering that the only other clear station had been country, Catra thought that the staticy saxophone was a true blessing. She slowly drove towards work as the host said to settle in for the tunes of someone called Fourplay.

It was 4:47 as Catra parked the truck in the employee lot and walked into the store. She greeted Kyle who was working the register and got a slight wave back. Dude looked stoned as usual. She quickly made her way through the store and pushed open the employees only door. Only to be immediately picked up from the ground and squashed in an all too tight hug

“Catra!” Scorpia screamed while continuing to squeeze her ribs

“You came!”

“Put me down you big oaf!” Catra screamed back trying to force her way out from between Scorpia's arms without it having much of an effect

“oh sorry” Scorpia mumbled before gently putting Catra back on the ground “keep forgetting. Not a hugger. Sorry. But hey! You’re here!”

“of course I’m here!” Catra brushed her hands down her shirt looking annoyed at Scorpia

“Didn’t you get my text?”

“well yeah… but you might not have come”

Catra sighed and pinched her nose “when have I NOT shown up for a shift?”

“I mean there was that one time…”

“we’ve been over that!” Catra held up a finger “I was homesick”

Scorpia rubbed the back of her head “well it’s just. Kyle said that you were just really hungover and you didn’t wanna work”

“well Kyle is full of shit” Catra grumbled as she pushed past Scorpia and walked towards the staff room

“I’m on cashier duty tonight Scorp?”

“Yeah, you’re relieving Kyle. I have to move a bunch of stock around cause the AC might not be able to keep up with the heatwave”

Catra stopped in the doorway and looked back at Scorpia

“you working a double again?”

“well” she said shrugging her shoulders “I can always use the money ya know”

“Jesus Christ you idiot” Catra said shaking her head

“you better get ready for a long night then big gal”

Scorpia flashed a big smile “can do Wildcat!”

“What did I say about calling me that?!” Catra yelled over her shoulder as she walked towards her locker

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The heat wasn’t much better in the store than it was back home. Just as Scorpia said the AC was having a hard time keeping the temperature down. And while not boiling hot as in her room. Catra quickly felt damp in her cheap yellow and turquoise polyester polo and wished that she could just wear her own damn shirt while working. At least that wouldn’t feel like it was slowly suffocating her.

Aside from the heat work progressed as it always did on her shifts. After about an hour or so most people had left the store and she was left to her own. With brief interruptions from Scorpia while she hauled stuff from one end of the store to the other. Sometimes stopping to chat for a few minutes but generally only exchanging a few words while walking by.

At around 8:34 Rogelio, one of Kyle’s friends, stopped by and made some small talk on the account that since Catra worked with his friend. The two of them were also friends in some form or another.

Once Rogelio left after buying some snacks the store went back to being relatively quiet. Scorpia seemed to be busy doing something out back and there were few customers in the store. Leaving Catra to her own thoughts as she kept obsessing over the idea of calling that number which she knew she’d be able to recall.

A customer came up to her register pulling Catra out of her daze. Yet she had to do a quick double-take as she could have sworn the person at the end of the belt was Adora. But no. Just some blonde with a ponytail that her obsessive mind had made to look like her. Wouldn’t have made sense anyhow, Adora’s halfway across the country studying.

But then Adora turns around and all of a sudden Catra is looking into those big blue eyes she’d known ever since she was five. Suddenly Adora’s eyes flick downwards for a second or two. Looking for the nametag which Catra is supposed to wear but never does. When she looks back up Catra realizes she’s been staring and quickly looks away from the blonde and instead starts scanning the stuff that Adora has put on the belt. Suddenly it feels like her hands aren’t cooperating with her and it takes way too much focus to get them to stop shaking. God, she hated how nervous she’d always get around Adora ever since… no. She wasn’t going to think about that again.

As she finally managed to start actually scanning Adora’s stuff. Catra could feel that she was still staring at her, and she suddenly became very self-conscious about how she looked. She hadn’t done anything to her hair after rolling out of bed earlier, and with how hot it was she was sweating like a pig which was probably more than visible through her cheap-ass polo. Plus, with how little sleep she had been getting she was probably sporting some major bags under her eyes. Not exactly what she had hoped for if she had ever planned on meeting up with Adora again.

She’s been side-eyeing Adora as she scanned her way through the merchandize trying to figure out what to say to her. Except nothing springs to mind and instead, she just ends up looking at Adora. Noticing the small wrinkles on her purple college sweater as she tries not to look too much at her face because it still makes her feel like her stomach’s filled with glue. But still, her eyes are constantly drawn back up towards those blue eyes framed by that ridiculously blonde hair. Just as usual Adora was looking just… just

“Catra?” Adora suddenly said hesitantly pulling Catra from her own thoughts and back into reality.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
(then)

Adora drags Catra across the playground babbling about some horse she saw on tv the night before. Catra not really listening as Adora talks about horses all the time and tomorrow it be a new horse she's babbling about. Suddenly Adora stops and points towards the basketball court a little further ahead

“Wanna go play ball with Mista and Solomon? It looks fun”

Catra looked ahead and watched as Solomon ran around Mermista with a basketball raised high above his head

“they aren’t playing ball” Catra said looking back at Adora “They’re playing pirates and Solomon only ever wants to play with Mista. Perfuma says Solomon likes her”

“oh” Adora said looking over her shoulder where Mermista had now taken the ball from Solomon and wasn’t letting him have it back “well... uhm.. we could play princesses?” Adora said the last part without looking up at Catra as she knew Catra sometimes got mad when she talked about their game too loudly. Apparently, it wasn’t very cool playing princesses.

“hmmmmm” Catra said pretending to think about it for a few seconds “okay. But we have to go out back alright?”

“Alright!” Adora exclaimed before pulling Catra by the arm again as they ran right past Solomon and Mermista towards their secret play place

“you’ll never stop the mighty Sea Hawk!” they heard Solomon yell as they ran past

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A little while after the two of them were sitting beneath the big tree out past the playground looking up at the sky through the leaves. Their fingers interlaced between them

“Do you really think Solomon likes Mista?” Adora asked trying to make shapes out of the few clouds above them

“that’s what Perfuma said. She also said Solomon wants to kiss Mista”

“EW! Really?” Adora pulled a face

“that’s what she said”

“that’s gross! Who would wanna kiss Solomon!”

Catra giggled at Adora’s outburst and squeezed her hand

“I bet you’d like to kiss Solomon” she said teasingly

“No I don’t! You do! it’s you who always plays ball with him!”

“Nuh-uh!” Catra scuffed in return “boys are gross! Its Mista who always wants to play with him”

“you think Mista likes him too?”

“maybe”

“So they might be boyfriend and girlfriend?”

“I don’t think so. Mista hasn’t said that”

“but they might be! And then they are gonna spend all of recess kissing and stuff!”

“you really think so?” Catra turned her head to look over at Adora

“well that’s what you do when you have a boyfriend. It’s all weird and gross”

“well, you don’t need a boyfriend. You have me”

“are you saying you wanna kiss me?” Adora asked meeting Catras eyes looking confused

“No! not like that! Just that we’re best friends and then we don’t need any weird boyfriends”

“Yeah. Best friends forever right?”

“yeah” Catra said looking back up at the sky smiling “forever”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Uhm Hey… Hey Adora” Catra said hesitant to meet Adora’s gaze as she tried to swallow a massive lump in her throat “I thought you were still at… uhm still back in, you know…”

“oh no summer break just started” Adora said a bit too quickly “I… I’ve uhm been back for a few days”

“ah, alright” Catra kept trying to swallow but her tongue seemed to have grown to at least double its size in her mouth making the task impossible

“yeah just decided to stop some snacks for me and my friend Bow. And something cold to drink of course. This heat really is killer”

“yeah” Catra said trying to get her mouth to cooperate so she could at least keep up something akin to normal conversation. Which of course hadn’t been an issue for Adora at all. She’d gone right into it like that talkative social butterfly she was and was telling Catra about her life and her friend. A friend that Catra was already obsessing about. Wondering what she meant by friend and how long they’d known each other. And before she could even stop it, her mouth decided to start working that exact moment

“new friend huh?” she blurted out sounding way more spiteful than she felt. Yet Adora didn’t seem to notice

“Oh yeah! We met at college and one of our other friends, her name is glimmer, has a place near here so I suggested we could spend break together. Or at least some of it right? But then Glimmer got delayed so now it’s just Bow and me here. And since we can’t go to Glimmers place yet we’re crashing at my place. So we’re kinda having and impromptu sleep over and I thought we’d need…”

“Sounds fun” Catra this time feeling a bit of that anger settling in the pit of her stomach. Then realizing she’d just interrupted cast her eyes downwards and away from Adora’s

“uhm sorry” she said still not looking up and trying to focus on getting the last of Adora’s stuff scanned

“no no, it’s okay” Adora said holding up her hands “guess I kinda went off there. Sooo you ended up working here? It’s nice”

Catra wondered how one could think a clammy and half-empty convenience store was nice and then briefly considered telling Adora about taking classes at the local community college. Then she decided against it

“uhm yeah. Scorpia scored me a job here”

“oh Scorpia works here as well?”

“yeah she’s somewhere out back doing manager stuff I think”

“cool, cool” Adora says looking down at the floor. Clearly feeling a gap in the conversation so wide not even she feels like she can fill it

“so..” Catra says trying to think of something else to talk about. Not wanting Adora to slip out of her grasp just yet “what’s college like?”

“oh it’s actually been really great” Adora says. Her voice suddenly much brighter

“I started out not really knowing what I wanted to do. But I hear most people have it like that. And well I’m still not really sure but I’ve really been thinking about looking at something to do with physical therapy”

“physical therapy?” Catra mimicked, just trying to keep the conversation going so she could savor Adora’s presence for a bit longer before she started feeling angry at herself for it

“Yeah I.. uhm I just thought it sounded nice. Also I been really lucky with housing as a few weeks into the first semester Glimmer and Bow’s roommate flaked on them. And since me and Glimmer knew each other from our introductory classes, she asked me if I wanted to move in with them instead since it would actually be cheaper than student housing. So yeah that happened”

“sounds like fun” Catra says ignoring that little pang in her heart that she refuses to acknowledge as jealousy and instead chooses to focus on something else

“your total is 23.45 by the way” she says. Returning to her almost autonomous customer service routine.

“huh…” Adora says like she just snapped out of a dream “oh yeah of course. Uhm here you go” She hands Catra a credit card

“thanks” Catra responds before processing the transaction and handing back the credit card

“you want a bag with that?” she continues as Adora stuffs the card back down the back pocket of her shorts

“oh no thank you. I just gotta get it back out into the car. Then Bow can help with it” But instead of taking her stuff and walking out the door like Catra expected, Adora just stands there looking at her with this expression that Catra can’t read.

“well” Catra says feeling that hot feeling return to her stomach “you better get out to him before your drinks get all warm or something”

At that Adora’s expression changes for a split second to something Catra almost thinks looks like disappointment.

“uhm yeah” she says as she starts picking up her stuff trying to balance it all “well it was nice seeing you”

“sure” Catra says not looking at her. And with that Adora turns around and start walking towards the door. Catra only turning to look after she’s sure Adora won’t see. Cursing herself for suddenly acting so stupid and for feeling so angry over something that wasn’t Adora’s fault. Not really.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At 1:26 Catra walks out the store after spending some time after her shift talking to Scorpia and helping her clean up in the back. She makes her way back to her car and considers driving back home before pulling out of the lot and driving down to the local 24-hour diner.

Once she’s pulled into a spot in an emptier part of their parking lot she opens the glovebox and pulls out her book and starts reading. Hoping it might be able to distract her from her thoughts this time. Although that soon proves just as useless as it did back home and she instead throws the book into the back seat and closes her eyes.

She sits like that for a while. The thoughts just swirling around in her head, giving her a bitter taste in her mouth. She suddenly opens her eyes and turns on the radio which greets her with the same staticy jazz as it did much earlier. Taking a deep breath she drives back out the lot and starts heading home.


End file.
